Summary: He didn't want it to happen, it just did. Everything that meant something to him just left. Vanished. Disappeared. He threw everything meaningful aside. He ignored society, the community and his 'so-called-friends'. He ruined his own life, built up a mask to protect himself, to protect others. But he wasn't happy. Not at all.

DISCLAIMER: YET AGAIN, I DO NOT OWN THE PERCY JACKSON AND/OR THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS CHARACTERS. ALL THE CREDIT GOES TO RICK RIORDAN.

Harsh Words

She Who Remembered

"Please, I'll pay you, I'll get you into a higher education! Just please, please help my brother! Therapists couldn't get him to speak, my father couldn't get him to speak, even I couldn't get him to speak!" Bianca begged, much like a mad man.

She really was throwing her pride on the line.

He hated it. He hated how unexpected people were thrown at him now. He hated it when people begged. He hated helpless people. Percy grit his teeth before sighing. He hated it when people made him give in.

"Fine. I'll do it. Just never beg again. Snobs like you are gross and horrible at doing so." Percy then made a face.

Taken aback, his eyes widened at her smile. His heart stopped in one moment just to take in how beautiful she looked. A snob can look like an angel from just getting help? A snob can make that kind of face? Why was it that she made him feel happy? How in the gods' names, after many years that these past two days made him want to smile?

"I am genuinely happy that you're helping."

His heart was hurting. "Genuine" …Calypso was the same. Was it because of that? Was it because she was genuinely thankful?

Percy had to hide a blush, looking away and scratching his head. "Good. So, when's dinner?"

Bianca looked at the clock hanging on her wall. "Well, we eat dinner at 6PM. You're going to have to stay here for 10 hours?"

Percy stared at her like a mad man. Why did she make him come here now?

"Have to? Why the fuck am I here so early? You made me miss school for this?" Though he didn't want to be at school, he had to point it out.

"Because…We didn't want you running off. Sure, we could have given you an invitation but you wouldn't have come!" Bianca argued back.

"And how would you know that?" Percy glared at her.

He hated rich people. He always has and that would never change. All they cared about was money and fame. They stomped all over "commoners" like him and pitied people like him. Like hell did he need pity!

"Because I know you, Percy!" Bianca snapped, only then realising what she said before covering her mouth in shock.

A mirrored expression appeared on his face, all the colours draining from Percy's tanned skin. She knew him? What the heck?! How could she? Hours ago she said bullcrap and treated him like dirt! This was just a way to get on his good side, wasn't it? A way to trick his mind into thinking that they were somehow friends from the past or something—

"…It's true, Percy. I didn't…I didn't want to tell you before. It's true, being around you would bring down my family's reputation but it isn't just because of you being a commoner. Percy…We've met years ago…When your parents were still—"

"NO! NO, NO, NO!"

Everything was getting blurry. Percy's mind was blacking out, yet he couldn't faint. His face was growing red and his badly cut nails sunk into his skin, causing blood to break through his skin. Then, everything was slow and cold. He couldn't hear anything but a loud buzzing noise. Not even noticing, he was already on his knees.

~O.O~

2006, August 18 (11 years ago)

"Ha! I win!" Bianca squealed, jumping up and down.

Her short and black hair was hitting the side of her cheeks as she showed her winning scissor hand.

Percy stood miserable at his defeat with his small hands wide.

"You always win, Bianca. I'm older than you so I'm supposed to win!" He huffed.

Bianca stuck her tongue out.

"You're just a sore loser at rock-paper-scissors!" She then gasped when she saw her little brother crawl towards the fireplace. "Nico, no!"

Running to the small and adorable little kid, Bianca dragged him away, making a face at his weight. Percy saw and laughed.

"You're so weak, Bianca! Let me carry him!" Percy stood up straight, showing his non-existent muscles – the way his dad taught him – and strutted over to her.

He then bent his legs in a sumo wrestler position before picking Nico up. For a 3-year-old he was pretty heavy. It was evident that Percy couldn't carry him considering his face was red and he was breathing heavily.

"And you said I was the weak one, Aqua boy." Bianca snickered, taking Nico from his hands.

Percy tried and failed to roll his eyes at her. Yes, he couldn't roll his eyes. It made his head dizzy and his eyes go elsewhere. Bianca liked calling him Aqua boy just because his dad took them fishing and presented a great show. She called him "Aquaman" from the comics because he loved fish and water and was a really good fisher. He was claimed "Aqua boy" because he was the protégé and in her words "not good enough to be the real Aqua person".

"Shush, Tigress!" Percy huffed back.

Yeah. They were really into DC Comics and claimed being superheroes.

"No! I'm Wonder Woman!" Bianca stamped her foot, which caused for imbalance.

She toppled over her own foot and crashed onto the carpet, Nico falling on top of her. The impact of his weight on her caused for her to start crying, and hearing his older sister cry, the little brother mimicked, only to have a much louder volume.

Percy rushed over immediately, bending down to help Nico off of her. A few other kids around his age did the same. It's just, for some reason, they were a blur. Everything started to blur, almost like—

"Oh Bianca, Nico. It's okay."

Percy's head spun around to look at the voice. It felt so familiar and—

Standing like a giant over him was none other than his mother. Normally, he would run to her and cry but she was different. Percy's eyes widened and then every single mist in view cleared. In front of him wasn't his mother anymore. It was that soulless body of what his mother left behind. Her bloody and empty body, almost like it was hanging on strings. Looming over her, a man stood. Percy wanted to run, move his legs but he couldn't.

"It's it wonderful to see you again…Grandson?"

~O.O~

Awaking from fear, Percy sat up. His body shook uncontrollably, as if something was possessing him. He couldn't get it out of his mind. That man, that awfully merciless man…

"Percy?" The voice came from Bianca, who had taken care of him whilst he had fainted.

She looked worried all of a sudden and her hair wasn't as neat as it was before. It seemed that he's caused trouble again.

Taking a moment to regain his memories, Percy calmly returned to his normal self. He gazed at Bianca with a straight face, as if his panic hadn't happened.

"What, snobby rich kid?" Percy snarled.

Yep. It was back. That dreamed made him remember who he was and what he was doing.

Bianca's eyes turned from worry to anger in a flash. She stood up and crossed her arms. Truthfully, Percy didn't want to upset her but when he thought back to their family tree, Hades Di Angelo. He was another adopted son of the famous Olympus heritage. The almighty father had already killed two of his children, Hades would be next if Percy brought attention to him. He didn't want that.

"Well, I'm sorry for trying to look after you. I hauled you in here, taking a good 5-10 minutes to do so. Do you realise how heavy you are?" Bianca huffed.

Percy wanted to smile, recalling of her rowdy behaviour. He couldn't believe he'd forget such a good friend like her. They weren't really cousins since the brothers of Olympus never were blood-related but she did feel like family to him. More like a spoilt younger sister.

"Maybe you're just weak?" Percy pointed out and unfortunately let a smile slip from his lips.

Crap. No. Not again. Why am I opening myself up to another person, let alone another girl? Percy had to look away, biting his lip and mentally punching himself. He hoped that Bianca didn't see it.

"You've been knocked out for a good couple of hours, you know." Bianca said.

She was seated calmly on a chair, looking at the clock. It seemed that she didn't see his smile. Thank god.

"Couple of…hours—wait, that's long! Why didn't you wake me up?" Percy shouted.

He wanted to slap her, scream at her, punch her. If she woke him up…If she did that then he wouldn't have had to remember that terrible man nor the image of his deceased mother. However, he couldn't. She wouldn't have known. Of course she wouldn't have known. No one knew of his descriptive and morbid trauma. No one was able to share the pain with him. No one who tried had stayed.

Bianca shrugged. "You were at peace…Well, until you woke up."

Then she stood up and walked to the door, leaning against it. "And because of your moaning, I've ordered the maids to make dinner early. We're eating in 4 hours. Lounge around in here if you want. Just don't leave unless you know where you're going, which I doubt."

After saying that, she was gone. She reminded me of a cat for some reason. Cat Woman. She could be Cat Woman. Wait a minute. Four hours…That means she watched him sleep for around five hours? That was creepy.

Something began tickling his back, which made him jump. One thing that no one knew about him: Percy Jackson was VERY ticklish. He went to scoop up the vibrating object, only finding that it was his mobile phone. Nowadays, people are talking about the new iPhone 7 or 10 Plus. The phone he had was a Nokia. Yup, you guessed it. The brick phone that you can play snake on. He didn't really use it anyway and in times of crisis, he could rely on it to not run out of battery and just call up Paul to bail him out of jail. Oops. He's never been to jail but that's what he'd do.

There wasn't a name, just the number on the phone, which was weird. Although Percy only had Paul in his contacts, someone else he didn't give his number to, got a hold of it. It seemed highly suspicious but Percy picked it up anyway. It's not like they would threaten him or anything. He had nothing to lose.

"Who's this?" Percy asked in a tough and lower voice.

There was no response on the other line for a minute. Percy might have thought he lost signal or the call ended until a familiar voice spoke.

"Oh, I'm sorry! This is Calypso. I was thought you were a friend of mine. I got this phone number from his step-father. It was my mistake for—"

"Calypso?" Percy spoke in his actual voice, quite shocked.

"Oh, Percy! Thank the gods!" The gods? Wasn't there only one god? "I thought you were kidnapped or something!"

Percy shook his head to himself, realising afterward that she couldn't see. "No. Just security measures—but why are you calling me?"

He could somehow tell she was shifting from one foot to the other as she spoke. "Mr Blofis asked me where you were since you weren't at school…He gave me your number because he thought you wouldn't pick up the phone…"

That was true. Percy never answered the phone to Paul until it was really late at night and he needed to be picked up.

"Percy, where are you—"

"Listen, Caly. It means a lot to me that you're worried but I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm just at a friend's house."

He then hung up the phone, cursing at himself. Why did he use the term "friend"? He's not used that word in years and now, why he's finally gotten control of his mask, it was breaking.

"Damn it."

And that is the end of Chapter 5!

I'm sorry if this story is progressing very slowly. I do intend to add a lot of characters and develop them to mean something to Harsh Words. I want it to link with the Percy Jackson series yet make a very strange twist that relates to a lot of people.

I've been trying to at least publish a chapter each month or maybe two chapters a month because I know that this fanfic will have a lot of chapters.

Just so that I can make it clear for you guys, this is indeed a Percabeth story but you know…I wanna make it more realistic. I don't want it to be easy for the two and I want to focus more on the plot too. There will be a lot of fluff between the two. Do not worry!

R&R

ThinkStupid (~.~)